A Century of Artists Books is an exhibition that ran at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City from October 23, 1994 to January 24, 1995. This exhibition was organized and curated by Riva Castleman, who was the Director of the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books at MoMA from 1976 to 1995. A Century of Artists Books was ultimately formed as a dedication to and a direct continuation of the work of Monroe Wheeler who was director of publications and exhibitions at MoMA. Wheeler had worked with and added to the Louis E. Stern Collection of Illustrated books, which was presented to the museum in 1964, and created one of the first exhibitions of illustrated books in America, revolutionizing the way people saw books in the art realm.
Working mostly with this same Louis Collection, A
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Books themselves present a variety of issues for scholars in the realm of intent, writer/reader relations, and societal use, and artists books only complicate it further. Therefore, since A century of Artists Books is exhibiting books, it is essential to talk about what constitutes an artist book, whether or not they are showing an evolution of artists books or a cross-section, the relationships of author/artist and text/illustration, and how to deal with the multi-paged nature and function of books in how the visitors should view them. In my analysis of A Century of Artists Books, I will be looking for each of these complications and critiquing how successfully the museum dealt with or presented these complications to the viewer. Furthermore, as education is essential for any audience take-away, the museums education techniques will also be under my examination for this exhibit. In particular, I want to examine how the exhibition portrays artists books and what they are, as well as convey their organized